By Emily Williams
The arts community has been a home for Kimberly Kirklin, a place of comfort throughout much of her life. In her position as director of UAB’s Institute for Arts in Medicine, she is working to share that sense of comfort with patients at UAB Hospital.
For nine years, Kirklin served as the director of education and outreach for UAB’s Alys Stephens Center, helping extend the center’s educational programs to underserved schools, communities and seniors throughout the Birmingham area. A major milestone in her career was the creation of ArtPlay which provides free arts classes, workshops and performances for community members of all age groups.
“I really found myself in the arts,” she said. “It’s a place where I gained self-confidence and found a community that has been there for most of my life. So being able to transfer those skills into a more administrative function has been a blessing.”
In 2013, as an outgrowth of ArtPlay, the center partnered with UAB Hospital to create a pilot program that brought similar arts opportunities to patients, their families and hospital staff. With the program in full force, Kirklin added to her responsibilities by taking over directing the Arts in Medicine program.
Unlike a music therapy program, which is conducted by trained professionals who have set goals for each session, Kirklin describes the Arts in Medicine program as a means to enhance the physical environment a patient is surrounded by in the hospital.
“For all of us, whether we’re artists, writers or musicians, if we aren’t performing then there is that question, ‘What are we going to do?’ and it’s the same for a patient in a hospital,” Kirklin said. “It’s wonderful to see how these programs affect the lives of all of these patients.”
At the end of the pilot, Kirklin said, the hospital’s research showed that about 90 percent of patients who were exposed to the program showed signs of reduced anxiety, among otherbenefits. Kirklin added that certain patient participants required less pain medication and experienced a faster recovery.
“I was really struck by how impactful it is for, not only the patients, but the artists themselves,” Kirklin said. “You can see that our artists in residence love their job and they get a lot of fulfillment out of their interactions with these patients and their families.”
Over the past 12 months, Kirklin said, the Arts in Medicine program has served 12,000 patients, their family members, staff and visitors at the hospital.
“When I talk to people about the arts in medicine, usually their first question is, ‘What do those two things have in common?’” Kirklin said.
From the first cave paintings and instruments, Kirklin said, the arts have had their place in all aspects of life, often sharing space with healing practices.
“Then, around the turn of the century from the 19th to the 20th, we discovered germs,” she said. “From there hospitals became these cold and austere environments.”
Kirklin’s job as director is to add a bit of vibrance to the sterile environment of a hospital. The program incorporates seven artists in residence: three visual artists, a musician, a dance-movement specialist and two theatre arts professionals. The artists work in various capacities, leading workshops, conducting performances in larger spaces, creating art installations and working with individual patients at their bedside.
One of the program’s regular workshops is a textiles class for high-risk obstetrics patients where they often create things for their babies.
“A lot of these women who are high risk are being monitored for weeks and even months, which leads to a lot of loneliness or boredom,” Kirklin said. “So the class creates a kind of informal support group and they learn a skill and they can continue their projects in their beds.”
The program currently serves a variety of departments, including the bone marrow transplant ICU, heart/lung transplant ICU, hematology/oncology infusion therapy and long-term adolescent psychiatry. Patients outside of the partnering units have the ability to request an arts in medicine referral, and Kirklin said the program has a great problem in that it is getting more requests than the current staff can handle.
“The artists know that when you enter a patient room, you put your ego at the door,” she said. “Some of these patients spend all day listening to doctors and nurses, so just offering them that moment to be heard is beneficial in itself.”
Smart Honor
In recognition of her work as a integral part of the UAB Institute for Arts in Medicine, Kimberly Kirklin has been chosen as one of the ten honorees for this year’s Smart Party. The event will be hosted by the Women’s Fund and serves as a networking event as well as a fundraiser, benefitting the organization’s efforts to supply women with the programs necessary to help them beat poverty.
Kirklin will join other volunteers who, according to the organization, represent ten of Birmingham’s smartest women. Honorees include: Gin Phillips Ashe, Elizabeth Barbaree-Tasker, Joellyn Beckham, Tosilyn Houston, Natalie Kelly, Dr. Michele Kong, Lucy Thompson Marsh, Jenny McCain and Lauren Schwartz. The event will be held at Iron City on Oct. 13 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and features heavy hors d’oeuvres, prizes, networking and more. Tickets are $75. For more information, visit womensfund.smartparty.org.